Nov 27 - 4am, a new routine ?

Not good.  4am again.  I don't mind getting up at 4am but want to get Cassie up, not the other way around.  Running around like a fool, she's full of energy. 

Yesterday "we" (Cassie and I) trimmed some banana leaves.  That means that I cut and she jumps at the dangling leaves, pulling them all over the yard, chasing me to the garbage can. 

I finished the dock, or at least all that I'm intending to do now.  I might change my mind ... who knows.  I do have a thing going now and it would be easy to pick up some more wood and tackle that other section of dock.  I also did the down pieces front and side. The only remaining cleanup is trimming the fastened wood in a couple of places. 

For yesterday's finishing touches, I picked up wood at HD and another 25 lb box of screws.  I was able to fit 8' pieces inside the car; 10 of them but could have brought 12 and still fit between the front seats over the console storage place.  I'm getting the hang of this now, having two cross pieces of wood in the back as support.  That next section of dock needs 10' pieces, however, and I'll need the tailgate down for that. 

Home Depot was busy, being Black Friday.  They had tons of staff on board and many people were hauling out what were obviously BF specials.  Others, like me, were picking up more mundane things like lumber. 

I had bought a new circular saw a few days ago as my old one was dying.  I needed to replace the cord, which is damaged, the blade and the brake is slipping -- the latter might be correctable.  It's a Craftsman, given to me long, long ago by my Mom and Dad.  I've got a few tools like that along with my workbench, that I've had for 40+ years.  That would include the reciprocating saw with the old-style Allen Key retaining system and the Skill jigsaw with the slot screw retaining.  There's nothing wrong with the reciprocating saw; it does the job.  The jigsaw, however, has been supplanted by a Dewalt which has the orbital cutting system and is much faster.  It too has tool-less blade replacement.

Anyway, the new saw (Dewalt, naturally) is still in the box, still shrinkwrapped.  Lowes had it on special yesterday for $89 which is $30 less than I paid at HD.  Not only that but shipping is free.  I don't even have to drive to the Port Orange store (that's about 7 miles away).  Ok, done.  Ordered.  I'll take the other back to HD.  Perhaps they would have done a price match but too late.

This morning my email tells me that my standard bicycle tires are on sale.  I'll have to check my stock in the garage and will likely order a few.  I go through about six per season, more if I've been unlucky enough to slice them up on road trash.  Sheesh, I see that others are selling them for even less than Excel Sports and with free shipping.  Ok, I should hop on that.

I did some online Christmas shopping etc. etc.   and I see from my Amazon email that shipping has taken place.

It's no coincidence that Amazon, Home Depot and Lowes are about the only retail stores (online or otherwise) that are growing rapidly while others are shrinking ... it's simply because of my shopping!

There are only a couple of days left in November.  I'm planning my December 200k ride with Harris next week but with him or without him, I'll be riding.  I will also go out today - postponed from yesterday because of "things to do".

One of those things to do was visit the Smyrna Athetic Club, aka the gym. They have their annual special on Black Friday which is a two-for-one.  I was intending to buy a year membership which would in effect cover me for three years given the summer "pause" in membership but it turned out that monthly EFT (as they called it) was the same price for a one-year commitment.  Their version of EFT includes credit card charge and also allows for pausing membership once per year. 

With automatic renewal, the fee stays the same "forever", or as forever as they can stay in business on that basis.  $15.99 per month is a pretty good deal, especially if I use it :).  The trick is getting into a routine with Cassie so that I can get over there for a half-hour and do some work on machines.  I don't want to leave and have her making so much noise that Sandy cannot sleep. 

Before heading north ... I need to:

1) do the colonoscopy.  That's scheduled for Dec 11th.

2) do a root canal -- yes, that's the final result of that Canaray x-ray work.  It's a slow draining abscess at the root of one tooth that's causing the problem.  It's been there a long, long time (more than two years) and is finally large enough for the 3D x-ray to spot.  Sandy found a good Endo guy in this area so I'll use him.  Fun.  This will be my very first root canal.

3) finish the Randonneurs Ontario year-end financials ... that would have normally been done by now but days go by and I don't get upstairs to my PC.  That will only take a couple of hours max.  I see that I also have the year-end Ontario Cycling Association Affiliation package to complete; just arriving in email last night.

4) ... is there a 4 ?  Will I do dock work ?

Around about now I usually put out the Christmas lights.  I can do that on the walkway but not on the dock, if I decide to do that section.  Or ... I could do that section but leave the railings for later, in which case I could put up the lights.  Perhaps.  It only takes a few minutes anyway.

We went over to the SYC for a drink before dinner last night, using up our remaining $10 or almost using up our remaining $10 since their drinks are so cheap.  There was a good crowd.  Rose was telling us about the Thanksgiving buffet and it sounded good; we should have partaken.  Oh well.  The next time that we're here without company on US Thanksgiving we may do so.  Last year at this time we were in South Beach.

In yesterday's blog I mentioned Sandy's cousin Doug.  I have no idea why my fingers typed Doug.  It's Donald.  I knew that and told Sheryl, who kindly pointed out my error, that sometimes my fingers just do what they want and I'm thinking a few words ahead of what's being pounded out on the keyboard.  I often find completely different words than intended when I proof-read my own work. 

It's 5:22 a.m.  Cassie is sleeping on the floor beside me, content.  If I move off the stool, however, she'll be awake and watching me, knowing that breakfast must be soon ... please Dad make it soon. 

We had chicken breasts on the barbie for dinner, good as always.

Onward !